Reclaim the Sacred

Religion, the teachings of God, the sacred, are supposed to be a gateway to experiences of the sacred, the divine, and the profoundly and personally meaningful. 

This is supposed to provide access to the deepest layer of a person, and imbue them with personal-power, confidence, and faith. 

But for most of us, modern religions and cults do less to inspire us than to fill us with disgust at the hypocrisy, dogma, and hatefulness. Such practices run counter to the love religion is supposed to stand for. 

Yet, many of us may still long for an experience of the sacred, a relationship with or experience of the divine, but due to the dogmatism of organized religion and cults, we find ourselves in a bind.

The sacred has been corrupted by bigotry, greed, and ignorance. And, people often look at religious people with condescension for their unscientific worldviews, and for their sheepish sentimentality.

For example, Karl Marx famously said that religion is the opiate of the masses, and Freud said that religion is an illusion to cope with the fears and uncertainties of life.

This makes seekers after the sacred, the meaningful, and the transcendent afraid of suffering from the same criticisms; they are worried they may be seen as foolish, bigoted and sentimental for their desires for deep emotional richness. 

Yet, without question, peoples’ personal experiences of the sacred are real. Condescension like this does not help. It exacerbates the feelings of shame, isolation, and meaninglessness, that are already being bestowed by modern religion. 

For people who have these experiences, and who would desire to experience the sacred more, who long for deeper meaning in their lives, this can be a point of extreme discomfort--even more so for people who were raised in a Christian or a conservative upbringing. 

For such people there may be a feeling of spiritual homelessness, isolation, and deep self-hatred. 

And worse, what can happen is that one associates the experience of the sacred, of the deeply personally meaningful, with these negative judgements, and one becomes locked out from their internal guidance and their personal power until they heal.

This creates a psychic block, a crisis of meaning, and an alienation from the deepest layers of themselves. 

What is required is to disconnect the association of the sacred with the cultural failings of religion and the cultural condescension of such profound emotions. 

One must learn to reclaim the experience of the sacred as one's personal nondogmatic experience of the meaningful, the immanent, and the transcendent. 

When one successfully integrates such feelings, they may experience a profound sense of meaning, wonder, awe, and gratitude. Their internal guidance comes back online, and they attract powerful synchronicities into their life. 

Such experiences of the sacred can arise from anything good, true, or beautiful; be it the striking beauty of nature, a feeling of love for an old friend, or an inspiring passage from a piece of wisdom.

For many people who are prone to such emotions, they often come from many different experiences, or can arise for no particular reason at all. 

One finds that life itself is immanent, transcendent, meaningful and sacred, and that the release of shame, dogma, and the wounding of religion opens one up to experience all of themselves and life on a deeper, more profound level.

This was my own personal journey of reclamation, and it has been a profound and healing journey. One that went from nihilism to meaning; from dogma to trusting my own personal guidance. 

I have freed my experience of the sacred from the shackles of dogma, and in doing so I have reclaimed my own sovereign authority; I have tapped into my own divine power within, without gatekeepers or cultural condescension. 

If this sounds like it could be helpful to you, please feel free to schedule a 20 minute call, and we can talk about how embodied-storytelling can help you awaken, accept, and transform yourself.